About Windows XP Home

I have a Compaq with XP Home that is somehow corrupt (looks like boot sector screwed). It will not boot. The unit came with XP preinstalled and NO install disks. Will your product:

A. allow me to access the drive and:
B. do a scandisk/virus scan
C. off-load data files to put on a new drive
C. Other?

Assistance would be appreciated.

Given this pc by daughter and we haven't a clue. Tried to download some stuff from discs from magazines for my wife but got nowhere and it's all a real mess now. Computer is soooooo slooooow and we are sick of it. What can we do. Know nothing about discs or disks or anything and have no-one to ask. Computer will soon end up in a heap as my wife is getting really mad 'cos she wants some fancy fonts and papers etc for her card making. She is ill and uses it as therapy but we can't buy any of this stuff that's supposed to help.

problème avec mon ordi je ne peux plus rien faire je crois que j'ai efffacé un fichier surtout windows xp

I'm trying to reinstall windows xp. I created recovery cd's but I think I used the incorrect type of disc. I used a dvd-r. What's the correct type of disc that I need to use.

I would put Ubuntu linux in that machine it's an easy learning curve and unless you want windows games its perfect.
download it free and just copy ISO format to cd then run it ....ubuntu forums is worth joining they will nurse you through the intial stages. all the programs you need are free and easy to download.
drivers are usually included , so it works out the box for most. try it nought to loose!.
and recovery discs for windows you use CD's if you cant download ubuntu look at linux magazines there is a free operating system inmost of the dvd's included.

when you install ubuntu choose the option to format or use all your hard drive that will give you a clean start

http://ubuntuforums.org/ is the web page for Ubuntu Forums read and enjoy

good

Ok, I'm hoping to find someone very helpful to respond to this post.

First of all - I know little to nothing about computers, so please dont feel bad if you explain things like you are talking to a four year old.

I bought a new gaming computer about a year ago. It came with windows vista and I have had nothing but problems with display drivers failing and having to reinstall dsiplay/printer drivers everytime windows updates.

I bought windows xp home edition today and I am trying to install it. I need to make a boot disk from what I have read.
I need to know what operating system do I create the boot disk for: XP or Vista, and does the cd need to be CD-R,
CD-RW or doesn't it matter?

I appreciate any help that anyone can give me. Thank you in advance.

I have copied the 6 Win XP diskettes and tried to check them but when I try to read the files I get "Windows cannot access the specified device, pth or file. You may not have the appropriate permissions to access the items"

Is this correct or is there something I must do?

Guinn

Please HELP my computer!
My computer is a intel celeron so
it is lousy.I activate my product key
too much times so I need to buy another product key.I intend to download Windows xp black edition but it has many malicious software.Windows xp black edition is an unattended version that is not from Microsoft Windows.I find the internet for free boot disks but they gave me a emergency diskette bootdisk.I found that linux is good so I request a free linux disk from Canocical.When I run the live cd they gave me lots of trash.I don't have a cd burner right now so I cannot open a .iso file.I have 2 diskette right now.I am running Windows xp home right now.

Please advice.

I have a HP pavilion pc with windows xp home edition, recently I tried to recover my using recovery dvd's provided but installation cant copy some files and I get a error message "cant load kernel files". Is there any solution for this problem.

OK,
For XP there are 6 listed disks. Do you need all of these to boot. or are these install files. They look a lot like install files to me.
Or do you somehow combine all the iso files to make on bootable DVD?

Insight appreciated

Dave

My father-in-law has a tosiba a55 laptop. He has forgotten the paaword for when ypu start windows XP- home edition. Does your software make a bootable diskette. The toshiba will not boot from a cd.
Any help will be greatly appreciated. My father-in-law is old and he has dimentia. He cann't remember what he set the password to.

When I start up the computer, it says:

Windows could not start because the following file is missing or corrupt:
\WINDOWS\SYSTEM32\CONFIG\SYSTEM

You can attempt to repair this file by starting Windows Swetup using the
original Setup CD-ROM.
Select 'r' at the first screen to start repair.

i don't have the the recovery cds ...

ggv

I was given an XP CD along with my laptop. I've lost the CD. Am unable to install from any other CD at the moment :(

Computer Maintenance

Whohohooo, amusing stories about other people's computer misery.. hehehe.

A few simple steps:
- When you buy a new computer, ASK those recovery discs, or, create them from the manufacturer's pre-installed proggies. Ask the guy in the computer retailer to help you with it.
- First thing to do with your new computer... wipe ALL of the harddisk. And after that, restore it from the recovery discs. If that does not work, you WILL be able to claim warranty. The manufacturer should provide you with a working product. If he provides recovery discs or a way to order or create them, that should work, too.
So now you have a new working computer with a working set of restore discs. Don't forget to copy those restore discs to new fresh media after two years. A few extra media are not expensive, so, why not make an extra copy, right now.

Okay... this is the perfect world... Let's say, you got a computer from a techie friend.. There's only that computer, nothing more.

Get an external harddisk (USB) immediately. Get harddisk imaging software immediately. Most of such progams come with a bootable CD which will let you restore your harddisk from backup. THAT'S important. To be able to restore a backup when your XP trashed itself. All programs can backup, but... will you be able to restore?
- if you can, replace your computer's hard disk drive with an empty one, and test it. if the test fails, just put back the original hard disk drive.
Now discipline yourself. Make backups regularly, for example once a month, and, just before you install new software. Retain some history. Don't use that USB disk for anything else. Keep it in a safe place, away from your computer. And don't forget to make a spare copy of the bootable CD which you use for restoring.

Okay... again, a perfect world... I'm sorry for that. Let's say, you got a computer for free, from someone who used this one for years, and got another one.

You accept a computer for free... It means, you accept another's trash. That could be a good solution, for you... Even if you don't wanna spend anything on a computer, you can still do some things to safeguard your data and make image backups of that hard disk drive, and the necessary tooling is always available somewhere in the internet.
First: if your harddisk is in one partition, split it in two partitions with partition resizing software.
Use a boot CD (which can be downloaded here) or floppy to boot your machine. Then use a harddisk imaging tool to backup your first system partition onto the second partition. If you can, create chained backup files which would fit on a cdr or dvdr. You can burn the images on DVD, in case your hard disk drive itself would fail.

Okay... again, a perfect world. Hahaha..... Let's say, you didn't do ANY of what's stated above....

That's STUPID. I'm sure that comp was very important to you, and that life as you knew it has ceased to exist, because your computer has crashed.

Why people regularly refresh the oil in their car's engines?

...and if they can't do that by themselves, why do they pay someone else to do it for them?

I'm off, reading the next forum of sorry crash stories.
hahahaha lmao

i have an error 0x0000001 does anyone know how to fix it?

Chappy:

Regarding Windows XP Home, is there an advantage using the files on your site versus the files on Microsoft's?

Thanks and keep up the good work. The ISOs for the other flavors are a GREAT time saver!

If I wanted a bootable iso image CD, and NOT a floppy(since floppy disks are obsolete), how do I burn an .iso image of Windows XP Home SP2 on a CD using MagicISO software?

Who needs floppy's, CD's and DVD's are more commonly used for burning data on than floppy's are, so I'll ask again!

"How do I burn the iso images onto a DVD?

For all of you having trouble getting files off the drive, try a linux-based OS boot disk (ubuntu, debian, linuxmint, fedora, etc.) and then go in and manually copy files to an external hard drive; it's free and open source. However, if you are having trouble reinstalling windows, then get/borrow a copy of windows cd by:
a. if it's under warranty, call the manufacturer and ask for one
b. call a friend and borrow one, or
c. buy another copy of windows.
Don't bother looking online. NONE (I mean none) of the cd's online are legit.
And by the way, try Spinrite 6.0 (newest version) from grc.com (only $80) to see if it fixes the bad drive sectors, or something that fixes the drive's file tables. It's worth it, because even if it doesn't solve your problem now, it probably will in the future.
By the way, Windows 7 is out, and it's better than XP. Which means if you're running XP, it's probably time to get a new computer anyway ;)

Thanks for the review, I'm already using that Windows version. I have concerns about the automatic driver update options, I am still working on this feature. Either way this Windows version is so much better than prior Windows versions.